The "Dream Team" refers to the team of trial lawyers that represented
O. J. Simpson in
his 1995 trial for the murder of his former wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the ex-wife of the former professional American football player, O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992. She was the mother of their two children, Sydney an ...
, and
Ronald Goldman
Ronald Lyle Goldman (July 2, 1968 – June 12, 1994) was an American restaurant waiter and a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the American football player O.J. Simpson. He was murdered, along with Brown, at her home in Los Angeles ...
. The team included
Robert Shapiro,
Johnnie Cochran
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr.Adam Bernstei ''The Washington Post'', March 30, 2005; retrieved April 17, 2006. (; October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was an American lawyer best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal ...
,
Carl Douglas
Carlton George Douglas (born 10 May 1942) is a Jamaican recording artist based in the UK who is best known for the 1974 disco single "Kung Fu Fighting".
Early life
Carlton George Douglas was born in Kingston, Colony of Jamaica. He later liv ...
,
Shawn Chapman,
Gerald Uelmen
Gerald F. Uelmen (born October 8, 1940) is an American attorney, writer, civil servant, and academic. He was part of O. J. Simpson's defense team during the O. J. Simpson murder case, dubbed the " Dream Team." Uelmen says he devised the memorab ...
,
Robert Kardashian
Robert George Kardashian (February 22, 1944 – September 30, 2003) was an American attorney and businessman. He gained recognition as O. J. Simpson's friend and defense attorney during Simpson's 1995 murder trial. He had four children with h ...
,
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
,
F. Lee Bailey
Francis Lee Bailey Jr. (June 10, 1933 – June 3, 2021) was an American criminal defense attorney. Bailey's name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, a surgeon accused of murdering ...
,
Barry Scheck
Barry Charles Scheck (born September 19, 1949) is an American lawyer. He received national media attention while serving on O. J. Simpson's defense team, collectively dubbed the " Dream Team", helping to win an acquittal in the highly publicize ...
,
Peter Neufeld
Peter J. Neufeld (born July 17, 1950) is an American lawyer, cofounder, with Barry Scheck, of the Innocence Project, and a founding partner in the civil rights law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin. Starting from his earliest years as an attorney rep ...
, Robert Blasier, and William Thompson.
The "Dream Team" lawyers
Robert Shapiro
Robert Shapiro joined Simpson's defense team one week after the beginning of the trial, when
Howard Weitzman
Howard Lloyd Weitzman (September 21, 1939 – April 7, 2021) was an American entertainment lawyer active in matters ranging from intellectual property and entertainment issues to family law and estate issues. He was notable for representing Micha ...
withdrew from the case stating his workload was too heavy to continue as chair. As defense chair, Shapiro was called the "architect" of the Simpson defense for building the high-profile legal team that would later be dubbed the "Dream Team." Shapiro led the defense team through much of the trial before
Johnnie Cochran
Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr.Adam Bernstei ''The Washington Post'', March 30, 2005; retrieved April 17, 2006. (; October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was an American lawyer best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal ...
took over as the lead chair.
Shapiro is the co-founder of RightCounsel.com and is a senior partner in the Los Angeles-based law firm Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro, LLP. He also co-founded
LegalZoom
LegalZoom.com, Inc. is an American online legal technology company that helps its customers create legal documents without necessarily having to hire a lawyer. Available documents include wills and living trusts, business formation documents, co ...
.
Johnnie Cochran
Cochran joined the Simpson defense team and later took over as its chair, during the trial. In his closing arguments, Cochran famously uttered the phrase, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," referencing the prosecution's scenario not making sense in general, but also alluding to the fact that the glove the prosecutors alleged Simpson wore during the murder did not fit Simpson's hand.
Cochran was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2003 and subsequently died in his home in Los Angeles, on March 29, 2005.
Robert Kardashian
Robert Kardashian
Robert George Kardashian (February 22, 1944 – September 30, 2003) was an American attorney and businessman. He gained recognition as O. J. Simpson's friend and defense attorney during Simpson's 1995 murder trial. He had four children with h ...
was a close friend of Simpson. Simpson stayed in Kardashian's house to avoid the media while the investigations and subsequent media fallout concerning the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman unfolded. When Simpson failed to turn himself in on June 17, 1994, Kardashian read a letter written by Simpson to the media that had assembled outside of his house.
Kardashian ended up reactivating his license to practice law, which he had let lapse prior to the Simpson case, to join Simpson's defense team. After the case, he doubted Simpson's innocence, eventually severing ties with Simpson, stating that had he known his family would get death threats, he would have never taken the case.
Kardashian was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in July 2003. He died at the age of 59 on September 30, 2003.
F. Lee Bailey
F. Lee Bailey
Francis Lee Bailey Jr. (June 10, 1933 – June 3, 2021) was an American criminal defense attorney. Bailey's name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, a surgeon accused of murdering ...
joined the defense team before the preliminary hearing and handled many of the defense team's press conferences. Bailey's most notable contribution to the defense was his cross-examination of LAPD investigator
Mark Fuhrman
Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952) is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the O. J. Simpson murd ...
.
In a press conference leading up to his cross-examination of Fuhrman, Bailey said, "any lawyer in his right mind who would not be looking forward to cross-examining Mark Fuhrman is an idiot." During the cross-examination, Bailey was able to get Fuhrman to
plead the Fifth in response to key aspects of the case, including planting evidence, thereby undermining Fuhrman's credibility as a witness. This cross-examination is believed by many to be one of the keys to Simpson's acquittal.
Bailey died on June 3, 2021 at the age of 87.
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
was the
Felix Frankfurter professor emeritus at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
and remained one of the most successful lawyers and legal scholars in the country.
After representing Simpson, he has represented
Julian Assange,
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
and
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...
. He has also served as a member of the legal team for President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
during his
first impeachment trial.
Dershowitz has written multiple books about law and politics including ''Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O. J. Simpson Case'' and ''
The Case for Peace
''The Case for Peace: How The Arab–Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved'' is a 2005 book by Alan Dershowitz and follow-up to his 2003 book ''The Case for Israel''.
Summary
Dershowitz was originally planning to write ''The Case Against Israel's Enemi ...
''.
Barry Scheck
Barry Scheck
Barry Charles Scheck (born September 19, 1949) is an American lawyer. He received national media attention while serving on O. J. Simpson's defense team, collectively dubbed the " Dream Team", helping to win an acquittal in the highly publicize ...
, a law professor at the
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, is a forensic expert.
Scheck is also known for his work as co-founder and co-director of the
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futur ...
, a non-profit organization that uses DNA evidence to clear the names of wrongfully convicted inmates.
Peter Neufeld
Peter Neufeld
Peter J. Neufeld (born July 17, 1950) is an American lawyer, cofounder, with Barry Scheck, of the Innocence Project, and a founding partner in the civil rights law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin. Starting from his earliest years as an attorney rep ...
joined the Simpson defense team to assist with undermining the prosecution's DNA and forensic evidence. He is perhaps best known for discrediting the credibility of the blood trail between
Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the ex-wife of the former professional American football player, O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992. She was the mother of their two children, Sydney an ...
's body and
O. J. Simpson's car.
Neufeld is a co-founder of the
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futur ...
, along with fellow "Dream Team" member Barry Scheck.
Neufeld is currently a partner at Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP in New York.
Gerald F. Uelmen
Gerald Uelmen
Gerald F. Uelmen (born October 8, 1940) is an American attorney, writer, civil servant, and academic. He was part of O. J. Simpson's defense team during the O. J. Simpson murder case, dubbed the " Dream Team." Uelmen says he devised the memorab ...
was part of O. J. Simpson's defense team during the O. J. Simpson murder case. Uelmen says he devised the memorable line used by Johnnie Cochran in the closing argument, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Uelmen is currently a professor at the
Santa Clara University School of Law, where he served as Dean from 1986 to 1994. He served as defense counsel in the trials of Daniel Ellsberg and Christian Brando. In 2006, he was appointed Executive Director for the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, created by the California State Senate to examine the causes of wrongful convictions and propose reforms of the California criminal justice system.
Robert Blasier
Blasier was a student of Dershowitz, and was also counsel for Simpson's civil trial.
Carl E. Douglas
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
was widely considered one of Johnnie Cochran's top lawyers. He later became the managing attorney of the Law Office of Johnnie Cochran, Jr. before leaving the firm in 1998, to form The Douglas Law Group (now known as Douglas / Hicks Law).
Shawn Holley
Shawn Holley
Shawn Katherine Holley is an American defense attorney.
Holley attended UCLA and Southwestern University School of Law. She began her career in the Los Angeles public defender's office before being hired by Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. She eventually ...
also worked for Cochran.
Verdict
On October 3, 1995, at 10:00 a.m, after four hours of
deliberation, the jury found Simpson not guilty on both murder counts. News of the verdict had a disruptive effect in the United States and abroad, as an estimated 100 million people worldwide watched or listened to the verdict announcement.
Before the verdict was read,
President Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again f ...
was briefed on potential security measures, in case rioting occurred following the announcement.
The
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
received a note documenting the verdict, which the justices passed to each other while listening to the oral arguments of the case at hand.
Portrayal in film and television
The Dream Team's success has been portrayed in multiple documentaries and docudramas.
*In 1995, Fox premiered the TV movie'' The O. J. Simpson Story''.
*In 2000,
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
produced ''
An American Tragedy
''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of ...
'', with
Ving Rhames
Irving Rameses Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his supporting roles as IMF Agent Luther Stickell in the ''Mission: Impossible'' film series and gang kingpin Marsellus Wallace in ''Pulp Fiction''. He also a ...
as Johnnie Cochran,
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
as F. Lee Bailey,
Ron Silver
Ronald Arthur Silver (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009) was an American actor/activist, director, producer, and radio host. As an actor, he portrayed Henry Kissinger, Alan Dershowitz and Angelo Dundee. He was awarded a Tony in 1988 for Best Actor ...
as Robert Shapiro,
Robert LuPone
Robert Francis LuPone (July 29, 1946 – August 27, 2022) was an American actor and artistic director. He worked on stage, in film, and in television. He was the brother of actress Patti LuPone.
Early life and training
LuPone was born in Brook ...
as Robert Kardashian,
Richard Cox as Alan Dershowitz,
Bruno Kirby
Bruno Kirby (born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu Jr.; April 28, 1949 – August 14, 2006) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in ''City Slickers'', '' When Harry Met Sally...'', '' Good Morning, Vietnam'', ''The Godfather Part II'', and ...
as Barry Scheck,
Nicholas Pryor as Gerald Uelmen, and
Raymond Forchion
Raymond Forchion is an American actor, writer, producer, and director who has appeared in film, television and stage. Aside from several pilots and TV movies, he has co-starred on such series as ''Burn Notice'', ''Numb3rs'', '' Star Trek: The Ne ...
as O. J. Simpson. Coincidentally, Silver previously portrayed Alan Dershowitz in ''
Reversal of Fortune''.
*On February 2, 2016,
FX premiered the first season of the anthology series, ''
American Crime Story
''American Crime Story'' is an American anthology true crime television series developed by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who are also executive producers, alongside Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Ryan Murphy, and Brad Simpson. The ser ...
'', titled, ''
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story''. The Dream Team was portrayed by
Courtney B. Vance
Courtney Bernard Vance (born March 12, 1960) is an American actor. Known for his commanding presence Vance started his career on stage before transitioning his career into film and television. He's received various accolades including a Tony Awa ...
(Cochran),
John Travolta (Shapiro),
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, ...
(Bailey),
Evan Handler
Evan Handler (born January 10, 1961) is an American actor who is best known for playing Harry Goldenblatt, a divorce attorney and later husband of Charlotte York on ''Sex and the City'' (2002–2004) and its revival series ''And Just Like That…' ...
(Dershowitz),
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom ''Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primeti ...
(Kardashian), and
Rob Morrow
Robert Alan Morrow (born September 21, 1962) is an American actor and director. He is known for his portrayal of Dr. Joel Fleischman on '' Northern Exposure'', a role that garnered him three Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations for Best Acto ...
(Scheck).
["The People v. OJ Simpson Cast and Their Real-Life Counterparts". Retrieved 9 September 2016.]
*In June 2016, ESPN premiered ''
O.J.: Made in America'', a 5-part, 8-hour documentary on the trial, by
Ezra Edelman
Ezra Benjamin Edelman (born August 6, 1974) is an American documentary producer and director. He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for directing ' ...
.
References
{{O. J. Simpson murder trial
American lawyers
O. J. Simpson murder case
Alan Dershowitz